magnification

American  

[mag-nuh-fi-key-shuhn] / ˌmæg nə fɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act of magnifying or the state of being magnified.

2. the power to magnify.

3. a magnified image, drawing, copy, etc.

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magnification British  

/ ˌmæɡnɪfɪˈkeɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of magnifying or the state of being magnified

2. the degree to which something is magnified

3. a copy, photograph, drawing, etc, of something magnified

4. a measure of the ability of a lens or other optical instrument to magnify, expressed as the ratio of the size of the image to that of the object

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Other Word Forms

• overmagnification noun

Etymology

Origin of magnification

First recorded in 1615–25, magnification is from the Late Latin word magnificātiōn- (stem of magnificātiō ). See magnify, -fication

Example Sentences

So you have no field of vision, but you have incredible magnification.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

The researchers discovered several pitfalls in calibrating the magnification of cryogenic optical microscopes, which tend to have worse image distortion than microscopes operating at room temperature.

From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2024

Josh Bouganim, a software engineer, proposed examining both cards under 200x magnification to see if the threads in the swatches matched.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2024

So far MOA has only detected six microlensing events that are consistent with magnification by a low-mass rogue planet, says MOA collaborator Takahiro Sumi, a professor at Osaka University, who co-authored both preprint studies.

From Scientific American • Oct. 5, 2023

“You mean the other dots. Well, no beams go to them so no magnification is necessary. Really, Powell, even you ought to be able to figure these things out.”

From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov